She was born Delores Baker November 1929, like many of her contemporaries
she began her singing career in church, in 1946, at age 17, she turned professional,
singing in a Chicago night club as Little Miss Sharecropper. Her family moved
from Chicago to Detroit the next year where she married Eugene Williams, she
continued doing night club work and occasionally wrote and performed under the
new name Deloris Williams. In 1948 she is thought to have her first recordings
for Columbia, although none were released, it wasn't until 1953 after recording
for various labels that she, as Lavern Baker, cut her first record Soul On
Fire for Atlantic, with whom she stayed until 1965.